Jamal Crawford joined Woj on the latest Vertical Podcast and told plenty of dope hoops stories shared memorable experiences that he’s had over his lifetime. In the interview, Woj asked Crawford about Eddy Curry, who was teammates with Jamal in Chicago and New York. Curry was an absolute star on the Chicago high school scene and Crawford said that when the two met Kanye West, who is also a Windy City native, Yeezy was “in awe” of the big man and that he “knew everything about him.”

“Eddy was so, he was so gifted…We traded Elton Brand for him because he and Eddy weren’t going to be able to play together and Elton was a bonafide 20 and 10 guy who just won Rookie of the Year. Me and Eddy we went to the Vibe Awards, we were in L.A. on a trip, and Kanye West was there. A younger Kanye west, he was just producing mostly, he saw Eddy Curry and he was in awe. Like, he knew everything about him, he was like, looking up at him like, That’s Eddy!”

Eddy Curry is returning to the court soon as part of the new Champions Basketball League, but during a speaking engagement at Metea Valley High School in Aurora, IL, the big man reminisced on his NBA playing days.

Curry, who was speaking to a group of 30 high school athletes, talked about what life was like as a professional athlete and how different life was as a Chicago Bull compared to being a New York Knick.

He said his only regret was not attending college and participating in the rites of passage, like living in a dorm, or experiencing the growth and maturity so many NBA players received as college athletes.

“It would be super dope to have a college diploma,” Curry said.

A graduate of Thornwood High School in South Holland, Curry was just 18 when he was drafted by the Chicago Bulls in the first found of the 2001 NBA draft.

“I was a kid coming out of high school, literally,” he said.

“When I was in Chicago, they babied me in Chicago. They really kind of sheltered and kept us kind of concealed and didn’t let us get into a lot of stuff. Then I went to New York and it was total opposite. It was like boom,” he said.

Curry ran into a number of problems while in New York, including financial issues and a sexual harassment suit that was later dismissed, and is now using his career as a cautionary tale to young athletes chasing their own dreams of stardom.

Various injuries to the Dallas Mavericks’ frontcourt will likely force Eddy Curry to be their starting center as the season begins. Yikes. From the Dallas Morning News: “Eddy Curry figures to embark to Los Angeles on Monday with his new Mavericks teammates as the team’s starting center. Considering he’s had a grand total of 25 minutes of playing time going into the season opener Tuesday, it’s not the ideal situation. But it’s all the Mavericks have at the moment. Chris Kaman still wasn’t able to scrimmage Sunday and it looks unlikely that he’ll be able to play against the Lakers. “There was a sighting. It was brief,’ said coach Rick Carlisle of what Kaman could do in practice. ‘He got through some of the shooting and 5-on-0 work. But he’s not there yet.’ Carlisle said Kaman was likely to travel with the team for the opening two-game trip but couldn’t add a definite to that statement. Meanwhile, Brandan Wright was able to practice after tweaking his left ankle last week, and probable starting forward Jae Crowder also went through full drills after a hamstring scare in Friday’s preseason finale. As for Curry, he had 11 points and seven rebounds in 25 minutes Friday against Charlotte.”

Earlier today, the Mavs suspended guard Delonte West indefinitely, and theDallas Morning News is reporting that West will likely be released from the team shortly. With the empty roster space, Dallas will reportedly scoop up Eddy Curry: “The Mavericks wasted no time filling a need – and the roster spot that will be created when Delonte West is waived – by putting in a waiver claim for veteran NBA center Eddy Curry, a source said. The deadline for finalizing the 15-man roster that will start the season is Monday. The Mavericks have until then to waive West, who is suspended from the team for the time being. … By signing Curry, the Mavericks will have a 16-player roster. But they are expected to jettison West, either by cutting him or finding a willing trade partner, before Monday’s roster deadline. Curry was waived by the Spurs on Tuesday.”

Free agent big men Eddy Curry and Hilton Armstrong both worked out for the Brooklyn Nets on Wednesday, showcasing their skills for a potential backup role. The Nets are looking for depth behind Brook Lopez, and apparently, are running out of options. Via the New York Daily News: “Both Curry and Armstrong are free agents hoping for a spot in the training camp, which starts Sept. 29. The Nets can only offer the veteran’s minimum. ‘This is an excellent opportunity for Hilton,’ his agent, Sam Goldfeder, said. ‘He’s 100 percent ready for his chance to make the Nets.’ Curry’s inclusion is curious considering his history in New York. After former Knicks GM Isiah Thomas mortgaged the team’s future for Curry in 2005, the 7-0 center ate and underperformed his way to the doghouse. He signed with the Heat before last season and won a championship, but played in only 14 games (averaging 2.1 points), falling below even 39-year-old Juwan Howard on the depth chart. Armstrong played in France last season after five seasons in the NBA, where he averaged 3.1 points and 2.6 rebounds with the Hornets, Kings, Rockets, Wizards, Hawks.”

Not too surprisingly, the Miami Heat have had very little use for Eddy Curry this season, and the big fella no clue if he’ll have a job in South Beach next season (let alone if he truly wants one.) From Fox Sports: “As far as playing-wise, it hurts me that I’m not playing,’ Curry said. ‘Honestly, I feel like I did a lot to put myself in a position to be successful here, but it just hasn’t turned into minutes for me. But I think, on another note, my body is great. I’m continuing to lose weight, continuing to get myself in great shape. And that’s all I can really ask for. It’s a world-class organization here, and just to be a part of it, I feel extremely blessed and I’m still making the best of it.’ At one point last year, the 7-foot Curry weighed nearly 400 pounds and it was no certainty he ever would play in the NBA again. But the Heat took a chance on him, and he’s now below 300. But it hasn’t translated into minutes. Curry has played in just 13 games all season, averaging 1.5 points and 0.6 rebounds over 4.5 minutes per game. When the Heat signed free agent Ronny Turiaf last month, Curry dropped to fourth on the depth chart at center, also behind Joel Anthony and Dexter Pittman. Considering power forward Udonis Haslem recently has slid over to start some games at center and power forward Chris Bosh also moves at times to that spot, Curry’s chances to get meaningful time in the playoffs are all but nil. […] Head coach Erik Spoelstra spoke of a desire to have Curry return after he becomes a free agent. ‘He’s done a lot for himself to prepare him for next year, hopefully with us,’ Spoelstra said. ‘But he’s set the table for himself to resurrect his career wherever he ends up going.’ So that raises the question: Is Curry interested in returning to the Heat next season? ‘I don’t know,’ he said. ‘We’ll see what happens. I’m here right now. I don’t know what’s going to happen … At the end of this thing, I’ll sit down with (Spoelstra) and with (Heat president Pat) Riley and with my agent (Leon Rose).’ Curry didn’t disagree it could be difficult returning to Miami after playing so little. ‘Obviously, it’d be tough,’ Curry said. ‘Although I haven’t played and they told me I would play, it hasn’t shaken my confidence at all. They’re real hands-on here. Coach Spo talks to me about it and tells me what’s on his mind, and I tell him what’s on my mind. As long as that line of communication is open, I got to take them as men of their words. I have no complaints. Of course, I would love to play. Everybody would love to play.’ […] ‘Worst case, I’m in the best shape of my life, and I’ll take that,’ he said.”

A somewhat svelte-looking Eddy Curry stepped onto an NBA floor last Thursday night for the first time since 2010, and he says that it couldn’t have happened without the encouragement of teammates LeBron James and Dwyane Wade. Reports the Miami Herald: “So much freedom. So much temptation. It was a long lockout. There were days Eddy Curry felt hungry and tired, and the NBA seemed so very far away. What’s one handful of candy? What’s one missed workout when no one is really working or watching? Curry thought about going to the club, thought about going to McDonald’s, thought about sleeping in late. ‘But I was getting a call or email or text every other day,’ he says. ‘When it wasn’t D-Wade, it was LeBron.’ […] Curry met with the Heat during last year’s playoffs but, in the words of coach Erik Spoelstra, he was ‘not ready even for any kind of workout.’ Still, it is very hard to find 7-footers who are smooth and skilled around the basket, especially cheap ones, and Wade and James knew what kind of treasure was buried under 70 extra pounds of flab. So they kept pushing and prodding their giant friend with a combination of gentle patience and tough love all offseason, telling him he was still young enough to overcome all he had squandered and endured. ‘I thought I could help them while I was watching the playoffs,’ Curry said. ‘But then they started calling. It wasn’t me imagining or dreaming anymore. It wasn’t third party. I heard it from their mouths. Do you know how much that motivated me? That these guys wanted me?’ How much weight has he lost? He shrugs his giant shoulders. More than 70 pounds. He says he hasn’t been this light since the day he was drafted fourth overall in 2001. Throughout the lockout, Wade and James kept inviting Curry to play with them in charity games, trying to keep him connected, trying to make sure he didn’t stray.”

Concrete proof that Eddy Curry is still in the NBA could come tonight during the Lakers/Heat game in Miami, according to the big fella and his coach. The Miami Herald explains, in hilariously dramatic fashion: “Like a great mountain shedding snow during a thaw, streams and rivers flowed down Eddy Curry’s face and body in torrents. So vast was the pool of sweat surrounding this giant on Wednesday that team trainers had to mop up the water hazard after he finally finished talking with reporters. Curry hasn’t played in a game since 2009. It has been a long and dormant winter, but the rebirth of his career is close at hand. ‘I can definitely touch it,’ Curry said. ‘I can see it … It’s going to feel great,’ Curry said of his return to the court. ‘It’d feel even better if I can do a Mike Miller and just go 6 for 6. I’m not anticipating that. That’s a pretty tough act to follow.’ Once a lottery pick, Curry found himself entirely out of basketball last season and his return to form has been a difficult process. Officially, Curry is still day-to-day after straining his hip flexor at the start of training camp. The pain is gone, says Curry, and now the only thing holding him back is the cautious approach of the Heat’s training staff. ‘If it doesn’t happen [Thursday] or this week, then it’s soon,’ said coach Erik Spoelstra, close to the vest as always about the status of his players.”

Having flirted with the idea of signing Eddy Curry for months now, it appears that the Miami Heat are finally ready to make it reality. From ESPN: “The Heat, who are in the market for help at the center position, have been monitoring Curry for months and considered signing him at one point last season. Curry has maintained a relationship with LeBron James for several years and has been focused on getting ready for Heat training camp all summer and fall, sources said.”

Famed trainer Tim Grover continues to tell anyone who will listen that Eddy Curry is in great basketball shape, and tries to explain why the big man hasn’t made an appearance in any publicly-viewed hoops game. From the Miami Herald: “Curry, who interests the [Miami] Heat, is in ‘excellent shape’ and ‘no question’ ready to join an NBA team post-lockout, well-regarded Chicago-based trainer Tim Grover told us last week. Grover declined to give Curry’s weight, which was 300 in August, down from 350 in March. Grover said he advised Curry not to play in the FIU charity game last weekend because ‘these are not games for big men.'”

The Melo League-Goodman League game—which is going down on Tuesday and will feature LeBron James, Chris Paul and Carmelo Anthony playing for the Melo League and Kevin Durant and Brandon Jennings playing for Goodman—just got a new participant: none other than Eddy Curry, who will suit up for the Melo League’s squad. HOOPSWORLD’s Alex Kennedy has the scoop:

The WaPo‘s Mike Wise re-creates an amusing scene from a June labor meeting between owners, players, and David Stern (who had the line of the night): “Before Game 4 of the NBA Finals in early June, almost a dozen players and about 10 owners met to frankly discuss their economic differences and how they could avoid a lockout before their current labor agreement expired less than a month later. If there was ever a moment to crystallize why there very well may not be an NBA season and what this is about, it came when Mark Cuban spoke freely about a recurring frustration among his peers: stale contracts. ‘When we had Tariq Abdul-Wahad, he didn’t seem to want to train, didn’t really want to practice — he really was interested in a lot of things besides basketball,’ the Dallas owner said, according to three participants who attended the meeting, all of whom spoke on condition of anonymity. Cuban added Abdul-Wahad, the former player whose physical ailments sidelined him for a full two seasons while with the Mavericks, had a guaranteed contract of six years, $40 million. ‘And I’m stuck with that,’ he said, the participants remembered. A lawyer for the players’ union then shot back that J.J. Barea, an emerging spark off the bench for the Mavericks en route to their first NBA championship, was making a pittance of $1 million for his considerable talent. ‘How about that? You’re getting a bargain in a guy like J.J. Barea.’ Finally, NBA Commissioner David Stern could not take it anymore. ‘All right, you want to go tit for tat, I’ll go tit for tat,’ Stern said, according to the participants. ‘I’ll see you J.J. Barea and raise you Eddy Curry.’ A shot to the gut, just like that.”

Most people probably aren’t expecting oft-overweight center Eddy Curry to use the current lockout as an opportunity to finally get back into playing shape, but that’s exactly what’s happening, according to the Miami Herald: “Center Eddy Curry is increasing his chances of generating serious interest from the Heat. Respected Chicago-based trainer Tim Grover said last week that since Curry’s workout with Miami in late June, he has lost another 28 pounds and is now at 300. Curry weighed 350 when he auditioned for Miami in March. Curry intrigues Pat Riley, who might offer him a minimum deal postlockout if he loses another 12 pounds or so. His skills ‘are there, no question,’ Grover said.”

With several albatross contracts handed out over the past few seasons (Rashard Lewis, Eddy Curry, Gilbert Arenas, etc…), a prominent negotiating point for the owners in the next collective bargaining agreement is the salary cap. Owners are basically demanding that the new agreement features smaller salaries, thereby protecting teams from throwing away millions of dollars on players like Curry who notably fail to produce. From the NY Daily News:

“When the league imposed its second lockout in 13 years last week, over a contract dispute that won’t be resolved anytime soon, that particular issue was mentioned several times by commissioner David Stern and his deputy, Adam Silver: They’re calling it pay for performance.

‘When we had our first meeting two years ago with the players, we said, ‘we don’t believe we’re distributing the $2 billion among the 450 players in the most efficient way right now,”Silver said during the news conference to announce the lockout. ‘We think we can do a better job matching pay for performance.’

It’s an old bug-a-boo for the league, with Curry being only the latest prime example of how teams throw away their money. Due to assorted minor injuries and his failure to get into shape, he played only 10 games over his last three seasons in New York, while earning more than $31 million. When you do the math, it’s astounding that Curry made in excess of $3 million a game.

Curry has to take a lot of the blame for his failure to get on the court. But the misspent money was all part of his fully-guaranteed, six-year, $60-million deal that the Knicks president at the time, Isiah Thomas, executed in a sign-and-trade with Chicago, and Garden CEO Jim Dolan was more than happy to sign off on.

Dolan never used a ‘pay for performance’ standard when judging Thomas, who threw away more of his boss’ millions with a few other notably bad signings. Famously, Thomas gave Jerome James $30 million in a free-agent deal and James ended up playing only 89 games for the Knicks, with only four games over his last two years.

The Knicks were not alone in practicing fiscal irresponsibility and bringing on calls for pay for performance.

In 2007, Orlando signed Rashard Lewis to a 6-year, $126-million free-agent deal, overpaying by $60 million for a player who gave them only one All-Star season. The Magic finally unloaded his contract but took another celebrated one in return when they acquired Gilbert Arenas. Despite Arenas’ knee troubles and flaky character, the Wizards gave him $111 million in 2008.”

Eddy Curry’s workouts for the Miami Heat last season didn’t quite pan out, but both parties are reportedly giving it another shot this summer. From the Sun-Sentinel: “By league rules, teams cannot currently work out free agents who finished the season on an NBA roster. Workouts of those types of free agents cannot begin until July 1, when a lockout is expected to be imposed, shutting down all league activity. Curry was waived by the Minnesota Timberwolves on March 1. In ensuing weeks he worked out for several NBA teams, including the Heat, in a bid to secure a place on a playoff roster. The Heat passed on Curry, 28, at that time, although his 6-foot-11, 285-pound bulk might have helped in the NBA Finals against Dallas Mavericks center Tyson Chandler. Due to conditioning and other issues, Curry has played only 10 games over the past three seasons, including none this past season. He earned $11.3 million this past season, but likely would have to return to the league at a minimal salary. He is represented by the same agency that represents the Heat’s LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh. In April, Heat President Pat Riley, through a team spokesman, confirmed that Curry was one of ‘a half dozen’ players the Heat had looked at, as part of a “big-picture” evaluation. The Heat is holding a similar evaluation of veteran free agents this week, in anticipation of a July 1 lockout start.”

Despite some speculation, Eddy Curry will not be taking his talents to South Beach. Via Yahoo! Sports: “After several workouts with the Miami Heat, free agent Eddy Curry left South Florida without the championship contender offering him a contract for the playoffs, league sources told Yahoo! Sports. Heat president Pat Riley and coach Erik Spoelstra weren’t sold that Curry, who hasn’t played an NBA game this season, could make enough of a difference to justify cutting a young player off its roster, sources said. Curry’s poor conditioning and more than 350 pounds of weight ultimately doomed his bid to join the Heat. After going to Chicago to work out Curry, who turned 28 two weeks ago, Riley was intrigued enough to bring him down to Miami for further evaluation and a medical physical. After working out a few days in the middle of last week, Curry eventually returned to his hometown of Chicago without an offer.”

Somehow, it’s tough to imagine Eddy Curry playing minutes on a contender. Which begs the question: Are the Heat truly putting themselves in a position to contend with the Lakers, Celtics and Spurs of the League? Via Yahoo: “The Miami Heat are progressing toward signing center Eddy Curry for the playoffs, front office sources told Yahoo! Sports. After Heat president Pat Riley watched Curry work out in Chicago in recent days, he’s made plans to bring the 7-footer to Miami early next week for another workout and a medical physical with the ultimate objective to sign him, sources said.”

GMs around the League are surely salivating at the idea of snatching up Curry for the Playoffs, now that he’s back on the open market. From the Star Tribune: “The team announced during the game that they reached a buyout agreement with Eddy Curry and waived the veteran, oft-injured center by a midnight deadline that makes him eligible to sign with a team for the playoffs, if such an interested team exists. Is there a market for a guy who’s barely played the last three seasons. Curry and his agent must think, or know, so, otherwise why would they agree to a buyout rather than just make the Wolves waive him and pay off the rest of his $11.2 million (for which the Wolves have received $3 million from the Knicks)?”

“We feel we got killed in the trade because we lost a couple of pretty good players,” Ujiri said. “Obviously, Carmelo Anthony. I feel sad for the city of Denver. I feel bad that this was done on my watch. To lose a guy like that. And also Chauncey (Billups). But I think we had to do it.”

“This was a process that was started by Carmelo; everything that we did just now was at his request,” said Kroenke, who hadn’t spoken on the record during the drawn-out trade process. “Our perceived desire to go young or cut salary (is unfair). The salary thing really hits hard with me because we’ve been in the luxury tax four of the last five seasons. We have a top-five payroll in the league this season. Our market doesn’t even come close to supporting that. The notion that this organization somehow is only concerned with cutting costs is absurd. We’ve explained that to Carmelo. This is all a result of his request to play in a different market.”

Denver is right, of course. Losing a superstar in the NBA, no matter what pieces you get in return, is a devastating blow to a franchise.

The Nuggets will remain competitive this season, and may even hang on and squeeze into the Playoffs. But they and everyone else knows there’s no replacing what ‘Melo represented.

For the rest of this season, the New York Knicks are going to be wildly entertaining. They won’t defend anyone, may even put a scare into a Playoff team or two in the Spring, and Madison Square Garden will once again be the most electric gym in the NBA.

Welcome to New York, Carmelo Anthony. This is what you wanted all along. Now, it’s time to deliver on the grandest of stages.

The Knicks have been reluctant to give up Gallinari, but now appear willing to do so after the Nuggets assembled the framework of a blockbuster trade with the New Jersey Nets in recent days. One league source confirmed a New York Daily News report that Knicks owner Jim Dolan had met with Anthony in Los Angeles.

Dolan “is doing everything he can to get him,” the source said.

The New York Daily News reports that although Donnie Walsh and Mike D’Antoni are not in favor of the trade, Knicks owner James Dolan could execute the deal as soon as today.

Dolan met with Melo on Thursday and the Knicks and Nuggets had a conference call yesterday. Mikhail Prokhorov released statement today stating that he has no plans to meet with Carmelo. Both the NY Times and Newsday report that Carmelo will not sign a contract extension if he is traded to the Nets.

All this is to say it’s likely that Melo will be a Knick before the February 24 deadline.

With just over a week to go until the NBA’s trade deadline, there’s more pressure on the Nuggets now more than ever to deal Carmelo Anthony. Unfortunately for them, they’re still asking for too much in return for the deal to go through.

Carmelo Anthony could have been a Knick Monday if only team president Donnie Walsh were willing to meet Denver’s trade demands, which one team official classified as “steep.” According to a team source close to the negotiations, “there is a deal to be made” but whether Anthony joins forces with Amar’e Stoudemire in New York between Tuesday and the Feb. 24 trade deadline likely comes down to the Nuggets either lowering their asking price or the Knicks turning over their roster to acquire one of the NBA’s top players.

The Nuggets, according to a source, are asking for three starters – including Danilo Gallinari and Raymond Felton – plus Eddy Curry’s expiring contract and at least one first-round pick. In that proposed deal, Anthony and veteran point guard Chauncey Billups would be coming to the Knicks.

You almost have to feel for the Nuggets’ front-office at this point — Carmelo Anthony wants to play for the Knicks, and they’re under little obligation to give up any of their key players to acquire his services(they could just roll dice, and wait until he’s a free agent this summer to nab him.)

Denver has nine days to come to the table with a more realistic proposal (or to find themselves a more willing trade partner.)

A source familiar with the situation said the Knicks, Timberwolves and Nuggets have discussed a three-team trade that would bring Anthony to the Knicks while Randolph, Wilson Chandler and Eddy Curry’s expiring contract would depart.

[…] In the proposed deal, the Nuggets would wind up with Corey Brewer, Chandler and a Minnesota first-round pick. Minnesota gets Randolph and Curry’s expiring contract. Randolph, whose representatives have requested a trade, has long been rumored to the Wolves for a first-rounder.

Before you say these latest rumors seem a bit too good to be true for the Knicks, remember Melo only wants New York. The Nuggets clearly would like to end this circus and might be getting desperate as the trade deadline’s only weeks away. Minnesota has long been rumored to be after Randolph.

So here’s how things would break down:

The TWolves would be turning a late first-round pick and Corey Brewer (whose contract is up after the season) into Anthony Randolph.

Both Chandler and Brewer are restricted free agents at end of season. Letting one or both of them walk will save the Nuggets plenty of tax money.

Should Melo sign anywhere else, ESPN takes a guess at what the Knicks might do: “So if the Knicks can’t trade for Anthony by the Feb. 24 trade deadline, they’ve got two other potential Plan Bs in mind. In one, they may go after Philadelphia’s Andre Iguodala, who would seem to fit nicely in Mike D’Antoni’s system. Eddy Curry’s expiring contract and one other player might be enough to pry Iguodala away from the Sixers, though Philadelphia doesn’t want to give away its top player in a mere salary dump. The Knicks’ other scenario would potentially bring Cleveland’s proven role players Anderson Varejao and Daniel ‘Boobie’ Gibson to Madison Square Garden. The Knicks are aware of their need for more toughness inside and Varejao would provide that. And Gibson could fill the backup point guard spot the Knicks have been looking to upgrade. The Knicks are weighing whether those two options are better than what they could get on next summer’s free agent market.”

Word is Knicks center Eddy Curry is healthy and ready to go, but Coach D’Antoni is in no rush to get him back in the game. Curry turns just 28 today—can he still be a solid role player? Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

Eddy Curry is ready to play, but Knicks coach Mike D’Antoni doesn’t think he is. Surprise, Curry and D’Antoni are on different pages.

Though starting center Ronny Turiaf‘s left knee is a chronic concern and rookie center Timofey Mozgov continued to regress last night, D’Antoni refuses to budge in suiting up the embattled center, who has warred with the Knicks coach for two-plus seasons.

Curry, meanwhile, is getting “antsy” and said he’s ready to rock.

“Yeah, I am. At the same we’re winning, and I’m not trying to disrupt that or disrupt anything around here,” Curry said. “It’s been a while since I played, but I haven’t been sitting around. I’ve been practicing, doing extra work to make sure I can get up and down. At the end of the day, it’s just basketball, what I’ve been doing my whole life. I don’t want to get into deserve or not deserve. I’m ready whenever he needs me.”

[…]

“Do you risk it?” D’Antoni said. “We’re playing pretty tight. We want to only do things when we’re sure. We got to get our record straight and can’t experiment right now.”

As always, there’s two sides to the coin: a) Give Curry a look if he’s actually healthy, and b) Playing Curry would send the wrong message to the rest of the team — the ones who work hard.

The best answer might be a compromise: Give Curry garbage time minutes, and quit the complaining.

After a period of dormancy following the collapse of a four-team trade late last month between New Jersey, Denver, Utah and Charlotte, the Knicks got back in on the bidding about two weeks ago after Anthony made it known to the Nuggets that he would not budge on his refusal to sign a three-year, $65 million contract extension with Denver. The offers the Knicks have proposed have always centered around packages including Anthony Randolph, the expiring contract of Eddy Curry and a first-round draft pick they would acquire from a third team, and New York has softened its stance on including forward Danilo Gallinari in a trade.

The most recent obstacle, according to the source, was for the Knicks to use one of those assets, likely Randolph or Gallinari, to acquire a player from a third team that the Nuggets value more highly than either of the Knicks forwards. The source said that obstacle can now be overcome, with the Knicks confident they can get their hands on a player the Nuggets would prefer.

Anthony, meanwhile, is doing his best not to feed the rumor mill. He told FanHouse that re-signing with Denver remains an option, and that he expects to be with the team when the regular season begins.

It certainly doesn’t feel as though we’re anywhere close to a resolution for Carmelo Anthony and his current employer.

The NY Post reports that the Knicks have put what’s left of Eddy Curry’s career in Anthony Mason’s hands: “Mason, a former Knicks forward who embodied the team’s defense and toughness from the 1991-1996 glory days, wore a Knicks coaching shirt yesterday and appeared briefly on the court. But mostly Mason’s work with Curry will be behind the scenes, in the weight room where they will be workout partners. Curry, who could be cleared for practice in the next two weeks, is out with a right hamstring strain, but the Knicks also want him to lose more weight and Mase is on the case. Curry was not permitted to go to Milan and Paris, partly to work out with Mason. Mason, out of Springfield Gardens, is trying to get back into the league as a coach/special instructor.

UPDATE: The Knicks might want to think about hiring a financial advisor for Eddy. TMZ has the latest on Curry’s money problems: “Curry is being sued by a company called Mojo Development — who claims they loaned the 7-footer $200,000 back in 2008 … but Curry never paid it back. According to the lawsuit, filed days ago in L.A. County Superior Court, Curry is also on the hook for a $25k ‘consulting fee’ and $136,000 in interest from the loan.”

There’s no change when it comes Eddy, who embodies all that is depressing about the Knicks‘ franchise. From the NY Times: “He has never looked more out of place and less relevant to the team’s future. Through two days of practice, Curry has been relegated to the third unit, with the rookies and free-agent invitees. He has slogged through drills. On Saturday night, he was lapped by an entire group of players as they weaved through cones around the court. By the end of Sunday’s practice, the third of camp, Curry was a spectator, watching his teammates jog with medicine balls while he stood near a basket stanchion. He is nursing a tight hamstring, making this the third straight camp that Curry has been injured. ‘Obviously, we’re pushing these guys hard,’ Coach Mike D’Antoni said. ‘He misses anything, it just makes it a little bit tougher.’ Asked if Curry was already behind, D’Antoni said, ‘Well, yeah.’ The setback was almost predictable. Curry reported to camp weighing 325 pounds — a 20-pound increase since April — according to a person in the organization. Team officials had asked Curry to come back closer to 300 pounds. They also asked him to attend voluntary workouts in July and September. Curry never showed. He was the only player not to attend voluntary workouts and scrimmages this month.”

Dang. Well, so much for Miami Heat swingman LeBron James causing a stir that was relative to his own former team’s demise — he’s been responsible for not only Chris Paul’s vacillations about leaving the New Orleans Hornets, but his Three Musketeers move has now gotten Denver Nuggets forward Carmelo Anthony into the act and now, he’s sent word that he’s looking to go elsewhere (yeesh). With that out of the way, the Trader’s Market is going to see how Carmelo Anthony might best fit in with a number of teams that could make good trade partners with the Nuggets and maximize his own skills to win big.

Obviously, if Carmelo goes to the Knickerbockers, it would mean instant excitement and an improved level of play all-around. Pairing two frontcourt scorers in Anthony and Amar’e Stoudemire would mean a lot in terms of scoring (although man-to-man defense might be a shortcoming, to be nice). Having Raymond Felton be able to pass the ball to two people who can draw double teams would open up the floor for penetration, and I’d assume that since the Knicks wouldn’t have to give up Danilo Gallinari in this deal, he could spread the floor next to the All-Star forwards at shooting guard, small forward and power forward, giving Mike D’Antoni a Phoenix Suns “East” kind of roster. It would mean that the Knicks would finally make some noise in the Playoffs, which would be good enough for a few seasons alone.

In Denver’s acquisition of the New York trio, they’d have a great opportunity to compete in the West, getting significant cap relief from Curry’s contract in the following year (should they let him play out his contract), feeding a future All-Star (Randolph) with plenty of good minutes and teaching by a world-class coaching, and then being able to also acquire a young wing player who can score, defend and be a model teammate in Chandler. The Nuggets wouldn’t be a top-seed team in the Western Conference right away, but the increased flexibility would give Denver the opportunity to be players in the trade market and continue to set a good pace toward the Playoffs, which would still be a relative win, considering that Melo’s teams didn’t usually get much farther than the first round most of the time anyway.

The Nets would instantly gain some credibility and a very promising base in Melo’s acquisition. With All-Star point guard Devin Harris, cornerstone center Brook Lopez and No. 15 filling the lineup nightly, wins would come. Without even mentioning the merits of new coach Avery Johnson leading the team, scoring and defense would come at a premium, and Johnson would demand the very best out of Melo. Losing Murphy would be unfortunate, but with Kris Humphries ready to make his mark and keep top draft pick Derrick Favors on the bench, the Nets would be alright.

As for the Nuggets, along with getting Williams and Murphy, I’d say the inclusion of two future first-rounders would do the deal nicely for Denver as well. As with the aforementioned Denver-New York deal, the Nuggets would get some good cap relief from the incoming contracts. Murphy would give the team a very good post presence as a scorer-rebounder and a youngblood in Williams would provide some more energy and athleticism as he grows into a scoring threat under the guidance of All-Star point guard Chauncey Billups and coach George Karl.

(Part 2 will be coming soon as well.)

Sandy Dover is a novelist/writer, artist and fitness enthusiast, as well as an unyielding Prince fan (for real). You can find Sandy frequently here at SLAMonline, as well as at Facebook, Associated Content and Twitter.

Trouble just seems to follow the big fella, or maybe it’s the other way around. Whatever the case, WLS-AM890 has the latest: “For the second time in little more than a month, a Cook County judge has issued an arrest warrant for former Chicago Bull Eddy Curry in a legal case that raises new questions about the NBA player’s financial woes. Cook County Circuit Judge Alexander White ordered Curry’s arrest on Monday, after learning Curry failed to sign an agreement to pay the balance of a $660,000 legal settlement reached after he was sued for allegedly having sex with an underage girl. The case stems from a 2001 relationship the two had when she was 14 and Curry was 18. The previous arrest warrant was issued in late June and quashed earlier this month after attorneys for Curry and the woman reached a payment schedule for the roughly $100,000 still owed the woman, according to court records. Now the warrant, which calls on Curry to post a $10,000 bond, is in the hands of the Cook County Sheriff’s office, a sheriff’s spokesman said. Because it is a civil matter, deputies are expected to work with Curry’s attorneys to have Curry turn himself in. If that doesn’t work, Curry will be arrested.”

Summer League ended without New York seeing or hearing much from their big fella. From the NY post: “The Knicks ended their Las Vegas summer league yesterday and Eddy Curry was never seen. And he’s tough to miss. Curry blew off summer league the way he has blown off the last three seasons of his Knicks career. Knicks officials were told he would come and never heard a reason why he did not. Curry is believed to be holed up in Chicago, where his wife recently gave birth. After Curry played just 10 games in the last two seasons, the Knicks would have loved to see him out on the floor competing with the young prospects to get some basketball under him. But at the very least, Curry should have been here meeting with the coaches and working out for a few days with the other Knicks, especially newcomers Amar’e Stoudemire, Anthony Randolph and Russian center signee Timofey Mozgov. Wilson Chandler also was on hand. Coach Mike D’Antoni put a positive spin on the Curry’s absence, but gave a very clear warning: He had better be ready in late September, or his time in Milan and Paris (where the Knicks will play preseason games at the start of October) will be as a tourist — not a basketball player. ‘I’d be stupid if not being here would sway it,’ D’Antoni told The Post. ‘But he’s got to be ready when training camp opens. He’s got to be ready.”‘

Curry can’t afford to pay his bills, and has defaulted on a large personal loan. The NY Post has the details: “Knicks center Eddy Curry defaulted on a $570,000 personal loan while keeping up a lifestyle that included a $17,000-a-month suburban New York home, a $6,000-a-month personal chef, and a dozen cars he’d bought for himself and relatives, a judge said. Friday, a Manhattan court ordered Curry to pay $75,000 a month to lender Allstar Capital Inc. to resolve a debt that swelled to $1.2 million with interest. The court also has issued an order letting Las Vegas-based Allstar seize three of the cars: a Rolls Royce Phantom convertible and two Land Rover SUVs, all 2009 models. Lawyers for both Curry and Allstar said Monday they were headed toward a settlement that would make the order moot. They wouldn’t disclose terms. Curry’s lawyer, Mercedes Colvin, would say only that she believed the two sides had reached ‘a mutually satisfactory resolution of the matter.’ Curry earned $10.5 million this season and is scheduled to make $11.3 million next season in the final year of his contract. But the former No. 4 pick in the NBA Draft has been dogged by financial and legal problems in recent years.”

Ah, yes. The old “the hotel was haunted, and I couldn’t sleep” excuse: “For two days, several players had trouble sleeping because they were convinced that their downtown hotel is haunted. ‘I definitely believe it,’ Jared Jeffries said. ‘The place is haunted. It’s scary.’ Eddy Curry claims he slept for only two hours Sunday night because he couldn’t stop thinking about ghosts roaming the hotel. For years, guests staying at the Skirvin Hilton have reported ghost sightings and strange noises. Legend has it that sometime in the 1930s, a woman jumped to her death while holding her baby in her hands. ‘They said it happened on the 10th floor and I’m the only one staying on the 10th floor,’ Curry said. ‘That’s why I spent most of my time in (Nate Robinson’s) room. I definitely believe there are ghosts in that hotel.”‘

Make room, Nate Robinson. Eddy Curry is also displeased with Mike D’Antoni’s way of conducting business: “One day after saying the Knicks should release him after the season if they don’t play him, the divide between Eddy Curry and Mike D’Antoni is growing. Curry expressed frustration yesterday with the lack of communication from the Knicks coach, who still hasn’t talked to Curry since yanking him from the rotation … Last month, D’Antoni gave Curry’s development as a reason for passing on Allen Iverson. Now D’Antoni has Curry buried in his doghouse, next to Nate Robinson. Curry, a DNP the past four games, and Robinson, a DNP for 11 straight, are close friends and have grown closer by their leper status. ‘As a player you always want to know what’s going on,’ Curry said. ‘That’s his style I guess. I’m not in any position to question his style. I’m just going to roll with it and hopefully I’ll get out there.’ For the second straight day, Curry would not use D’Antoni’s name or call him as coach — as he used to. Instead, Curry referred to D’Antoni as ‘he’ and ‘him.’ ‘He understands right now where we are,’ D’Antoni said. Curry does not sound convinced that D’Antoni thinks he’s a good fit because he is a low-post player. ‘I feel like I do [fit in],’ Curry said. ‘[But] it’s not my team. I’ll keep approaching it as if it is the right fit for me as long as I’m here. They have the power to change it. Until they decide I’m not the right fit by moving me, I’m assuming I’m the right fit.”’

Don’t worry about a thing, Knickerbockers. Eddy’s got this: “Eddy Curry is so enthusiastic these days, the Knicks center volunteered to defend a certain Lakers guard tonight at Staples Center. ‘I’m so happy to be back, doesn’t matter to me,’ Curry said. ‘I’ll guard Kobe [Bryant].’ Curry has gotten lighter, but not that light. Curry’s emotion got the best of him Sunday against Boston when he pushed down Rajon Rondo to the floor, drawing a flagrant 1 foul. The league reviews all flagrant 1s, so there’s a small chance Curry could face a suspension tonight.”

Such a busy night in the NBA and where was my focus? Milwaukee, the same place as most of the NBA people on Twitter. I cannot express in words how exciting it is to see the hype the Bucks now have around them as a team, and the mild hysteria that has erupted around Jennings. It’s fun. With Twitter, we get to watch the evolution from rookie to star-in-waiting, through nine games.

We also got to all panic in unison as he took a Brook Lopez knee to the thigh in the fourth and appeared to be down for the count for a few seconds before shaking it off in a timeout. Whew. The Bucks survived to get another W.

The Nets, well, they survived, but 0-12 is just awful. It’s dreadful. Especially when Chris Douglas-Roberts is exerting his healthy self for 45 minutes, and putting up a career-high of 31 points to go with 10 boards in the loss.

My highlight was Jennings slipping past NJ defenders and getting a dunk in the game. Also postgame when he said that’s probably all you’ll see from him in terms of dunks this season. He had 19 points and eight assists, but he also turned the ball over for every one of those assists.

Just listen to him talk about his 55-point explosion in this interview. The best is when he says, “I love to play basketball. That’s all I really want to do. I’m not worried about the other things that come with it. The main thing is playing basketball getting wins, making my teammates better and making this city want to come back to the Bucks games every night.”

He gets it. He’s 20 years old and he gets it. Gonna be lots more to come from this guy.

Raja Bell playing in Boston for the Warriors last night.

That’s a guy that recognizes the blessing of this game and of his career. For a guy who is supposedly getting surgery TODAY, gritting out a game against the Celtics by playing through pain when a season is not on the line, for teammates he hasn’t really played with that’s respect for the game. That’s why he deserves ours.

He did play for Nellie before, though. Had a jolt from the past hit me, as I thought about Raja being in Dallas for a season before he went to Utah and became known as a defensive stopper and one I’ll always enjoy.

The Kobe clothesline was hard for me to take, but he acknowledged that he lost his cool on that play. Still as a Lakers supporter, I never thought he’d end up being my go-to NBA guy when people ask who is the easiest to talk to. From that very first NBA preseason game in Vancouver between the Suns and Sonics (RIP, sonics), Raja was just easy.

He’s a guy who loves the game and is thankful to be playing it. I’ve got love for that.

The Raptors played like the Raptors as they lost in Utah. Getting down by 18 in the opening minutes, then cutting it to three at the end of three only to fall apart in the fourth and lose to the Jazz, 104-91. Chris Bosh was fantastic in the loss, scoring 32 points to go with 17 rebounds, but outside of 19 points from Marco Belinelli off of the bench he didn’t get much help. Boozer was huge for Utah, getting 22 points to go with 18 boards, while rookie Eric Maynor added 15.

The Spurs and Mavs had a crazy one in Dallas, but I did not see it because it was an ESPN game that wasn’t picked up here in Canada. Epic fail on my part, and on my country’s part, I know. The Mavs pulled away in overtime and survived Kris Humphries missing a dunk. That I don’t need to see live to picture. Dirk had 41 points and 12 boards while Tim Duncan reminded us all that he’s still got it (even in a losing effort), finishing with 22 points, 14 rebounds, six assists and four blocked shots.

Lots of guys injured in that game with Marion and Parker both out with ankle injures, Dampier missing the game sick and Ginobili going down with a strained groin as well. Get healthy, Mavs/Spurs!

One of the other big games of the night was in Washington, as the Wizards had their guys back healthy and used a strong second half to take down the Cavaliers, 108-91. LeBron had 34 points and nine assists, but the Wizards had Earl Boykins, and he was great in the final quarter. Boykins finished with nine points but he was all over the floor as Antawn Jamison scored 31 points to go with 10 rebounds.

And the Hawks continue to win. Al Horford makes me smile when he runs the break. What are you thinking about this team? I keep waiting for them to stumble (sorry, Hawks fans), but they don’t. It’s been impressive. 10-2 looks mightly fine in ATL.

Looks like Stephen Jackson is feeling comfortable with his new teammates. Playing 45 minutes, scoring 26 points and taking 21 shots, Jax doesn’t need time to get acclimated, I guess. Bobcats still lost by two to the 76ers, though.

I’d just like to see more of Mr. Holiday, please.

Andre Miller with 10 points and 11 assists in a Blazers victory over the Pistons.

Rashard Lewis bounced back from a bit of a rough seaon debut by pouring in 17 points, 10 rebounds, nine assists and two steals for the Magic and they dominated OKC from start to finish. My fantasy team was smiling all around last night.

Can someone answer this: Is B. Roy really 6-foot-6?

And finally, its time to welcome back both Jamaal Tinsley and Eddy Curry. Both made their season debuts last night. I cannot say enough about how great –and young!– Curry looks. Glad he finally took his career into his own hands. Going to be interesting to see what happens with Tinsley.

It appears Iverson really is going to end up in New York and still, my thoughts are a clustermash of confusion.

I just hope the Nets get their victory against the Knicks on Sunday, first.

Somehow, Eddy now looks like half the man he used to be, literally. And this is a good thing: “Knicks head coach Mike D’Antoni said Eddy Curry had been working out at a grueling pace for over a month. The results, however, would still shock just about anybody. Curry looked slim, ripped and like a player on a mission when he practiced with his team Tuesday for the first time since tearing a calf muscle on the opening day of training camp. His two-a-day conditioning program with Knicks’ trainers over the last month seems to have worked to perfection so far. ‘I didn’t want any more setbacks so while I was out rehabbing from the injury I wanted to get in the best shape as possible,’ Curry said. ‘This is the best I’ve felt in a long time. I feel real good now. Just walking around I feel real light on my feet. Everything feels better, I think.”‘

Reportedly, Eddy must shed a lot of weight before he’s allowed to don the blue and orange uniform again: “Patrick Ewing stands a better chance of suiting up for the Knicks next week in Miami than Eddy Curry. Curry, the team’s out-of-shape center who was banished from practicing with his teammates two weeks ago, must meet a certain weight before he will be allowed to rejoin the Knicks. According to a source close to the team, Garden Chairman James Dolan was involved in the decision to keep Curry away from the Knicks until he improved his conditioning … According to a source, Curry has lost weight, but the feeling is that he will have to get down to between 305 and 310 pounds before he can rejoin the team. Curry, 26, is the Knicks’ second highest-paid player this season, earning $10.5 million.”

The Knicks say Curry isn’t in good enough shape to play right now. That, or they simply can’t find a uniform that he can fit into: “Curry is not in acceptable playing condition. For now, that is the official conclusion of the Knicks coaching and management staff as Knicks president Donnie Walsh announced Tuesday that Curry would not be back on the practice floor until trainers got him into better playing shape. ‘While he did a lot this summer, he’s not ready to go out there and play at NBA speed,’ Walsh said. ‘We’re going to take longer and get him out there, because every time the comes out on the floor, he pulls a muscle.”‘

In other breaking news, the sun rose in the East this morning: “Eddy Curry could be sidelined up to one week after an MRI revealed a torn right plantaris muscle, which runs from the top of the calf to the Achilles. Curry returned to New York today to have blood drained from the injury and he is expected to be back in Saratoga on Thursday.”

In April 2008, Donnie Walsh became president of basketball operations for the New York Knicks, replacing he-who-shall-not-be-named-ever-again-in-this-blog. He inherited a roster with no chemistry, no heart and no pizzazz. That’s right, pizzazz. Just like pizza, but with two z’s. It’s a fancy way of saying “root-ability” or “watch-ability,” in which case this group had neither. They were so awful you resorted to “boo’ing” or throwing things at the television screen.

More importantly, Walsh stumbled into a roster with no cap flexibility. Here’s what he inherited and why they clogged up the salary cap quicker than 5 p.m. rush hour.

Stephon Marbury | $76 million, through 2009
This was the contract-extension Marbury received from the Phoenix Suns back in 2004. He averaged 20.8 ppg and 8.3 assists in 34 games for the Suns, before being dealt. They were 12-22 in those 34 games. In fairness, he was near or at his prime when he got the extension. But as the Marbury story goes, he’s just another good player on a bad team.

Zach Randolph | $84 million, through 2011
This is what really sunk the ship. He was 2 years into his contract-extension, which he won after winning the NBA’s most improved player award in 2004 while playing for the Portland Trailblazers, when he signed with New York. This left the Knicks with a huge chunk of salary that would only hinder the cap as the years progressed.

Eddy Curry | $60 million, through 2011
All of that green for a guy with a heart problem, weight issues and who has never averaged more than 7 rpg at the center position. There’s nothing we can do here but shake our heads.

Jamal Crawford | $55.4 million, through 2011
Sure, he was a nice guy off the court and said all the right things, but on the court was a different story. Crawford was a sub-par defender and a constant shoot-first guard with a poor 41 percent clip for his Knicks career. He was meant to replace Allan Houston, the way Houston replaced the beloved John Starks. The problem was, Crawford couldn’t shoot like Houston or display the fire like Starks.

(Sidebar: You can argue the Knicks still haven’t replaced Starks as a fan-favorite. David Lee and Nate Robinson get love, but in no way like Starks or Oakley did. It goes to show how much winning really does affect a franchise and its fan-base. It’s sad.)

Jared Jeffries | $30 million, through 2011
He can’t shoot. It’s actually an understatement to say he can’t shoot. He doesn’t know how to shoot would be more accurate. For a guy to get paid that handsomely just to defend is disgusting. So what can Jeffries do? Guard multiple positions and… help me out here?

Jerome James | $30 million, through 2010
I don’t even want to talk about this one. Let’s talk about food instead. Where’s the biggest slice of pizza you’ve ever had? For New Yorkers, Koronet in Morningside Heights is pretty monstrous and at 3 a.m., when you’re feeling good, it’s pretty damn delicious.

Those are six of the most detrimental contracts to the Knicks cap at the beginning of the ’08-09 season. People argued there wasn’t enough time for Walsh to clear-out space for 2010 and the LeBron James sweepstakes. Here’s what Walsh did and didn’t do with these six contracts…

Stephon Marbury
Agreed to a contract buyout (one-year left at $20.8 million)
When: February 2009

Zach Randolph
Traded to the Los Angeles Clippers for Cuttino Mobley and Tim Thomas (both have expiring contracts by the summer of 2010)
When: November 2008

Jamal Crawford
Traded to the Golden State Warriors for Al Harrington and his expiring contract (by the summer of 2010)
When: November 2008

Jerome James
Traded to the Chicago Bulls, in a deal that also included Tim Thomas and Anthony Roberson, for Larry Hughes and his expiring contract (by the summer of 2010)
When: February 2009

Eddy Curry, Jared Jeffries
No transactions.

In addition to those six, Walsh also…

— Rid the franchise of he-who-shall-not-be-named, and brought in Mike D’Antoni to run the team.

— Signed Chris Duhon to a two-year contract (expiring by the summer of 2010).

What does this all mean for 2010? The Knicks only have six players against the cap in 2010 so far (Wilson Chandler, Curry, Jeffries, Gallinari, Hill and Douglas), at around $22 million. We’ve read the apocalyptic cap scenario released by the League, predicting it may drop to as low as $50 million if the economy doesn’t improve. The cap for this season is $57.7 million, with a $69.92 million luxury tax level. The Knicks payroll this season is about $84 million.

Fun fact: from 2005 to 2009, the Knicks paid the League $125.7 million, just from going over the luxury tax. Let me repeat that number…

ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-FIVE MILLION, SEVEN HUNDRED THOUSAND DOLLARS. Are you kidding me?

Sorry, continuing…

In the worst-case scenario (a $50 million cap), it appears the Knicks only have room to offer one max-contract to the free agent class. The amount of a max-contract depends on how long the player has been in the League, according to the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA).

By 2010, LeBron, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh will be entering their eighth years (they were all part of the star-studded draft class of 2003); Amar’e Stoudemire his ninth; Joe Johnson his 11th and so on. It’s unlikely anyone but LeBron and Wade will be offered max-contracts. According to reports, teams will need at least $16.5 million to offer a max-contract to a player going into their eighth season.

This won’t leave the Knicks with much room to fill out the roster. That’s why we have to pray to the economic God’s that the recession begins to recede a bit. The salary cap is roughly determined by how much income the League accumulates and what the League expects income will be for the upcoming season. If the Knicks want any chance of signing LeBron/Wade plus another marquee free agent (Bosh/Johnson), they will need to shed the remaining contracts of Jeffries ($6.9 million) or Curry ($11.3 million).

If the cap doesn’t dip to $50 million, and the Knicks still haven’t moved Jeffries or Curry, the team will be in OK position regarding free agency, enough to sign one big name. Here are specific things we should be looking for if we want New York to have a successful free agency coup:

1. How the teams with 2010 free agents perform. If you’re a Knicks fan, you want Cleveland, Atlanta, Toronto and Miami to tank. Especially Cleveland.

2. Keep an eye on the Knicks growth, both as a team and individual players. The only way Curry or Jeffries gets dealt is if they perform on the court. This will be much easier said than done. Also look for improvement from Gallinari, Chandler and the rookies, Douglas and Hill. People will be more hesitant to jump to a team with no chance of winning, so it’s imperative these four display potential.

3. Understand what’s going on in the economy. Keep up with NBA television ratings, sponsorships, advertising, etc… I’ll repeat: Knicks fans need the economy to improve so the cap doesn’t dip too much.

My head hurts now. I become a journalism major to avoid numbers. That worked out well.

The discussion of whether LeBron departs Cleveland or Wade leaves Miami is excellent. It gets people talking about this lovely game of basketball, and the more the better. We all have our opinions on what they might do (I don’t believe Wade leaves; LeBron I’m not too sure about), but let’s be mindful that whether or not the Knicks acquire them, it was prudent and necessary to fix this roster and this franchise. Walsh moved this once-proud organization in the right direction. Careful spending, having enough room to actually chase people and nurturing young talent are what they’ve done. We’ll probably have to sit through one more losing season, but come 2010, it will be worth it, LeBron or not.

I think we can all agree that the world we live in is small. I think we can also agree that the social media phenomenon has made it even smaller. Twitter, Facebook and uStream have managed to shrink the world 140 characters, one friend request and one lifecast at a time (What up Myles!).

Even more than the general public, celebs and professional athletes, have taken an extreme liking to the newest and trendiest way to communicate. They enjoy being able to directly connect with their fans and the freedom it gives them to speak their minds without censorship or filter from the media. The NBA’s athletes are no exception. But for some of its players, being unfiltered and uncensored has become very damaging personally and professionally.

Imagine for a second how dangerous it would be to smoke a cigarette without a filter. How many years would that shave off your life? Even the heaviest of smokers wouldn’t dream of doing something like that. Given some of the recent social media mishaps we’ve seen, how many guys have shaved years off their careers or worse still, millions from their bank accounts?

On the most extreme end of the negative side of the social networking spectrum we have Stephon Marbury. He has seemingly committed career suicide with his StarburyTV webisodes on uStream. We’ve all seen him cry uncontrollably for no apparent reason; eat Vaseline, smoke weed… Pretend to be a Chippendale and dance to Barbie Girl on his bed. It seems that any hopes of him possibly being added to another NBA roster have officially come to an end. It’s a shame considering he’s only 32 years old with a lot of basketball still left in him. It’s an even bigger shame that he doesn’t appear to care.

Those who know him best say that what we’ve seen on uStream is just Steph being Steph, but this is a classic example of when keeping it real goes terribly wrong. Watching him almost feels like an invasion of privacy, but it’s not the same as a peeping Tom peering through someone’s window. No, Steph’s invited the whole world in to see who he really is. Forget TMZ, this is TMI.

We all know what happened with Michael Beasley and his Twitter mishap, so no need to revisit that again; but what about JR Smith?

In June, he was on Eddy Curry’s live uStream feed called “The Eddy Curry Show” during a 4 a.m. traffic stop by police with JR duly noting that he hadn’t been drinking or smoking. Then, after completing his sentence last month for a traffic accident that killed his best friend two years ago, a writer at the Denver Post with way too much time on his hands became the “Tweet Police” and noticed that JR was removing the letter ‘C’ from words and replacing them with the letter ‘K’ in his tweets which led him to speculate that he was a making ‘kryptik’ messages associated with being a member of the Bloods street gang. Wow, really?

There are players in the L with gang affiliations, this I know for sure. But their backgrounds aren’t even remotely close to JR’s and they certainly don’t broadcast it on Twitter. I know as people grow up they change, but JR Smith went to HS at St. Benedict’s Prep in New Jersey; a Catholic, all boys prep school. Go to their website and you’ll see this:

St. Benedict’s Preparatory School is a community of 555 young men and 53 faculty members. Members meet each morning at 8:00 for song, readings and prayer, for announcements and attendance reports, and to discuss common problems and opportunities. This Convocation is a daily reminder of the conviction that the happiness and success of each member is the responsibility of all.

I don’t know about you, but I read that and thought to myself, “Now that’s exactly the kind of place a Blood would come from.”

Also, does anybody besides me remember seeing JR being ribbed by Devin Harris five years ago about his parents living with him and hearing his admission to still getting whoopings when the two were on the bus during All-Star weekend their rookie years? Oh yeah, and let’s not forget those infamous SpongeBob slippers that he used to rock. So after all of that, you now expect me to believe that JR Smith, a multi-millionaire professional athlete, turned into a gangbanger after spending only 24 days in a county jail cell? Yeah, OK. And Kobe Bryant really is a rapist.

Lastly, we have Milwaukee Bucks rookie PG Brandon Jennings. He made some not-so-kind remarks about Ricky Rubio on his Twitter feed and took some heat for it. He also found out that expressing your true feelings over an internet feed isn’t exactly a good idea either. He went on rapper Joe Budden’s popular Joe Budden TV webcast and spoke his mind on a number of things including Rubio, the Knicks and their PG situation.

In the context of the conversation which took place over the phone, I’m willing to bet a “Milli” that Young Money had no idea that he was being recorded. I’m also pretty sure he had no idea of Budden’s intentions of actually putting the conversation out there. But he was recorded, and the conversation was put out; briefly. After word got around about it, his Twitter account was immediately closed and the video was also taken down. Every now and then he’ll pop up on Facebook, but other than that it seems that Brandon’s foray into the world of social media is over; for now at least.

These incidents along with several others are the reason why the NBA is now monitoring the content of its athlete’s tweets and will institute rules regarding Twitter this season. Given what we’ve seen so far, I don’t think monitoring along with rules being put in place regarding is a bad idea at all considering NBA players tweet more than athletes of any other sport. Besides, when employees know that their boss is watching, they tend to be more mindful of the things they do and say. The NBA after all is a global business. It can’t afford to have a few people drag the entire image of the League down which they’ve tried so hard to re-build and maintain after the “thug years” passed.

Don’t get me wrong, social networking isn’t all bad. In fact it’s a testament to the wonders of technology that has brought us all closer. It’s made us all one big community. But like everything else, it has an underbelly. It has an ugly side. Or then again, maybe it doesn’t. Maybe it’s just people broadcasting the ugly side of themselves for the entire world to see that gives it a bad rap.

Either way, to quote Uncle Ben, “With great power, comes great responsibility,” For those whose lives are in the spotlight and under the microscope 24/7, there is no room for error. One slip and your image and your reputation can be tarnished forever. Its one thing to have other people try and bring you down, it’s something totally different when you do it to yourself.

First of all, congratulations to Blake Griffin for his NBA Summer League debut last night, in which he went for 27 and 12 in a Clippers win over the NBA champion LA Lakers. (OK, their Summer League team.) There is, however, a strange quote from Mike Dunleavy in the AP story about the game…

“I’m not surprised him made all those shots,” said Clippers coach Mike Dunleavy, who did not coach the summer team but was a very interest observer at the game. “I watch him go 8 of 10 every day from five spots on the court.”

First of all, forget that Dunleavy was an “interest” observer at the game.

“I‘m not surprised him made all those shots” might be my favorite quote of the calendar year thus far, and, typo or not, I believe it may have established a Links meme in regards to Blake Griffin.

Blake Griffin, him going to be amazing rookie! Him rebound, him shoot, him play power game! Him so good we trade Zach Randolph!

Ladies and gentlemen, the Clippers present Blake “Him” Griffin!

The second half of the quote must also contain a typo. Dunleavy said, “I watch him go 8 for 10 every day from five spots on the court.” I was at Him’s workout for the Clips (along with a bevy of NBA writers, including David Aldridge, Howard Beck, etc.) and we all watched Him go about 2 for 10 from various spots around the lane. Then again, Dunleavy was pretty vague about it, so perhaps the “five spots” Dunleavy speaks of are all within three feet?

Anyway, the point of all of this was to congratulate Him for the big game he played last night, but also to remind everyone that we’re talking about summer league action. Remember when Marcus Banks scored 42 points in a summer league game? Or last summer when Jerryd Bayless averaged 29 ppg? It’s summer league!

• There are still, however, some undeniable summer league highlights. Such as yesterday, when the allegedly lighter and brighter Eddy Curry forgot his sneakers. But hey, at least he’s down to 328 pounds!

• OK, so it looks like I was wrong, and I’m not afraid to admit when I’m wrong. David Kahn definitely knows what he’s doing in Minnesota. Calm down, T-Wolves fans, because it looks like Terry Stotts (!!!!!!) is the leader in the clubhouse for the coaching gig. Great excuse for me to run this picture from his time in Atlanta when he coached on ‘70s night. Have fun, Wolves!

• When I was a kid we had a couple of cats, and I had no issues with them. Then I developed an allergy to cats, and since then I’ve never liked cats. Now it turns out they’ve been exploiting us all along!

• Because I watched Apollo 13 in HD last night, here’s ten things you didn’t know about Apollo 11, when man first landed on the moon.

• This is a little Lord Of The Ring-ish, but it’s still pretty amazing. More pictures and details here. But can it get League Pass?

• Finally, when I was returning from Africa last week, we had a layover at Heathrow, so I bought a USA Today to catch up on all the news I’d missed being off the grid for a week and a half. I was shocked to read about the death of Billy Mays. I’ve been a little obsessed with Billy Mays for a while. Ever since I saw him on the OxyClean infomercials years ago, I thought he would be an interesting guy to write a profile on, and even pitched him to some men’s magazines (that weren’t interested). Then he started turning up in more and more commercials, and finally got his own show on Discovery this year. And now he’s dead. If you have a PC, here’s a perfect way to commemorate Mr. Mays.

The Knicks’ big fella says he’s a new man, and apparently looks the part, too: “A slimmed-down, more-limber Eddy Curry Eddy Curry joined the Knicks summer league team on the practice court, dunked with ease and moved with grace at Valley High School. According to Donnie Walsh, Curry has lost 30 pounds…’My body just reacts a lot faster. Before everything I did was real calculated. Now it’s instant. I just want to make the best of the situation,’ Curry said. ‘I want to salvage this. ‘The last two years I want to show the fans in New York and the organization what they brought me here for.”’

]]>http://www.slamonline.com/nba/eddy-curry-too-scared-and-sleepy-to-watch-the-draft/feed/15Robbing NBA Players is Not a Good Ideahttp://www.slamonline.com/nba/robbing-nba-players-is-not-a-good-idea/
http://www.slamonline.com/nba/robbing-nba-players-is-not-a-good-idea/#commentsFri, 08 May 2009 14:00:42 +0000http://slamonline.com/online/?p=33004

Unless you enjoy spending a very long time in the hole: “A Chicago man ordered to serve 21 years in prison for robbing NBA star Antoine Walker has been sentenced to another 21 years for holding up the New York Knicks’ Eddy Curry. Cook County State’s Attorney spokeswoman Tandra Simonton says Antoine Larkins will serve the two sentences concurrently. The 30-year-old Larkins and 27-year-old Demorris Hill were charged with robbing Curry after police apprehended the two in the July 9, 2007, holdup of Walker at his Chicago home. Larkins was sentenced in the Walker case on Tuesday.”

Knicks center Eddy Curry has taken custory of his son, Noah Henry-Curry. In January. police had found Noah in the room where his mother, Nova Henry, 24, and 10-month-old sister Ava were murdered. Nova Henry’s former attorney and ex-boyfriend, Fredrick Goings of Chicago, has been charge in the murders.

The Knicks’ star-crossed big would gladly welcome a trade: “Knicks brass will shop his contract this summer in an attempt to get further under the 2010 salary cap. ‘I’ve been here a long time,’ Curry said before the Knicks lost 106-101 to the Nets last night at Izod Center. ‘I want to see us get better. If it takes my contract to do it, then I would hate to leave, [but] if it results in the Knicks getting better, I’m all for that.'”

]]>http://www.slamonline.com/nba/eddy-curry-is-ready-to-move-on/feed/12Eddy Curry Will See You in Court, Not on ithttp://www.slamonline.com/nba/eddy-curry-will-see-you-in-court-not-on-it/
http://www.slamonline.com/nba/eddy-curry-will-see-you-in-court-not-on-it/#commentsThu, 05 Mar 2009 16:00:27 +0000http://slamonline.com/online/?p=24871

The injured Knick center is counter-suing his former driver: “Knicks center Eddy Curry Wednesday countersued his former driver for allegedly leaking details of settlement talks in a sexual harassment suit against him. David Kuchinsky sued in January, claiming Curry approached him ‘in the nude’ and made him perform ‘humiliating tasks.’ Curry’s suit, which also names Kuchinsky’s attorneys, claims the lawyers told reporters details of private settlement talks.”

Incredibly enough, this Eddy Curry story continues to become more and more depressing with each passing day. Not only has he had an unfathomably bad year up to this point, but according to a recent report, he had major financial problems dating back to last year.

Unfortunatley, Curry isn’t a major corporation, and the U.S. government wasn’t willing to step in and bail him out. And neither were the Knicks. From the NY Daily News:

Eddy Curry asked the Knicks for an advance of approximately $8 million last year to offset his increasing financial debt.

The Knicks rejected Curry’s bailout package, according to a person close to the troubled center, because the organization considered the amount excessive. The same source says that the Knicks did advance Curry approximately $2 million, which is commonplace in the NBA as long as the player is guaranteed to make double that amount on his existing contract.

The 26-year old Curry is on an indefinite leave of absence from his employer, and it doesn’t appear as though he’ll play again this season.

He’s obviously got a lot of things to figure out before he can worry about playing basketball again.

Eddy Curry, you could say, isn’t exactly having the greatest time of late.

His basketball career is in shambles, he’s facing sexual harassment charges from his ex driver, and now his former girlfriend was found slain in Chicago (along with her infant daughter) over the weekend.

As if things weren’t bad enough, it appears as though Curry’s three-year old son witnessed his mother and sister’s deaths. The NY Daily News has the grizzly details:

“The [boy] was found in a pool of blood,” one of Curry’s close friends told the Daily News. “That really upset him. He was really upset that his son had to see that.”

Little Noah was found by a relative Saturday night unharmed, the pal said. Family members said he was walking around in Nova Henry’s blood, leaving footprints all over their Chicago home.

“He had approached my friends and me a while back trying to get money and stuff like that,” Curry said. “I just never thought — especially with the past that me and him had — I never thought that it would go past where it did, which is idle threats; ‘I want some money or else’ kind of stuff. I guess it’s just like a prime example of you just got to watch who you have around you. This is a guy who I really thought was my friend up until the last four or five months. I can’t even believe this has happened.”

For what it’s worth, here’s teammate Malik Rose take on things: “I know for a fact Eddy’s not gay.”

And because Eddy clearly didn’t have enough to deal with in his life at this point, his coach diplomatically stated that the big fella needs to lose some weight if he plans on seeing the court. Somehow, I don’t think that’s his biggest concern this morning.

Dessert overdose, popping exercise balls, breaking mirrors…these things are no longer news when talking about Eddy Curry. But this is.

If any of the allegations, as reported in the New York Post, are true, Curry has given his family and organization reason to shake their head. Visit the report for the alleged details–they’re too ridiculous to copy here.

New York Knicks center Eddy Curry has all the offensive skills in the world, but he continues to drvie Big Apple fans crazy with his mercurial defense. Will next season be the one in which he finally reaches his potential?

Losing in New York is unlike losing anywhere else in the world,” states New York Knick center Eddy Curry. “I mean, we don’t even get the paper [delivered] to my house anymore.”

Tucked away—as much as a 6-11, 285 pound man can be—in the upstairs dining area of Times Square’s regal Paramount Hotel, the Big Apple’s big man might not be feeling particularly large tonight. His squad has just lost yet another game, and it’s clear another Knick season will end without a sniff of the Playoffs.

But Eddy’s not letting some black cloud piss on him. He refuses to take tonight’s loss to heart. The fact of the matter is, the 24-year-old Harvey, IL native, who is wrapping up his sixth NBA campaign, is actually feeling pretty good these days.

See, in Eddy’s view, he is one of the biggest names in the East.

“I feel like Dwight Howard is a great player, but past him and Shaq, it’s me,” he says, bent over a full plate of chicken alfredo. “Even if you look statistically, I was averaging more than any big man in the East.”

His eyes drift into his plate for two seconds. Then suddenly he looks up, sits erect and proclaims: “I feel like I’m the dominant big man in the East.”

It’s this robust confidence that’s allowed Curry to become the evolved player that he is today. Not only has it assisted him against the League’s competing Goliaths, but the baby-arrogance has helped keep him comfortable during a career that has been filled with turbulence.

Considering he’s seen more than his share of non-believers, losing records, health concerns and critics, Eddy had no choice but to develop armor. Still, his doggedness shouldn’t be mistaken for delusion.

“He really should’ve been an All-Star, this year,” says Eddy’s
favorite teammate, Jamal Crawford, who met Eddy while Jamal played for the Bulls and EC was a high school senior at Illinois’ Thornwood HS [When he doubled as SLAM’s high school diary writer.—Ed.].

So Curry’s relative happiness is understandable. He sits at this evening’s meal as the Knicks’ MVP—their lone consistent low-post presence and leading scorer (19.5 ppg). Possessing a stretch-Hummer truck of a body and, after the reborn Chris Webber, possibly the East‘s softest touch in the paint, Eddy is simply a load to handle on the blocks.

Along with the best statistical season of his career, he’s having a ball in the Big Apple.